In January, we ran through Goat Pass in Arthur's Pass from Deception Valley over to the Minga side. This is a route which is part of the epic and popular sport event "Coast to Coast". Two of the guys from work were training for the event and we saw it as a good excuse to run through with them. It is a challenging run where you do what feels like hundreds of river crossings.
Mel, Dave, Shaun and I running up the river bed.
Did Mike grow or did the hut shrink?
A few weekends after, we climbed Avalanche Peak in Arthur's Pass. It was a gorgeous day.
February the 6th, Waitangi Day, happened to be on a Wednesday this year, so it was a bit hard to get far away from Canterbury. We went up to Mt Sommers for a February the 6th, Waitangi Day, happened to be on a Wednesday this year, so it was a bit hard to get far away from Canterbury. We went up to Mt Sommers for a
We had been training a months of or so for the Mt Terako Challenge , which is supposed to be "the most challenging moutain run under 20 km in NZ". The race was about 20 km with a total elevation of over 2000 m. It was an awesome run with lots of screerunning, skipping through creeks, bush bashing and wandering through fog. I loved it and ran with a smile on my face the whole 4 hrs 25 min. It was pretty much all off track and since there of not many races like this one, I hope the organiser will keep it next year as there were only about 30 guys competing and 7 women.
Charlie charging up the hill. He finished in 3 h 40 min. Good on ya mate!
Charlie heading down one of the screeslopes to Lottery Stream which was full of the introduced pest didimo (rock snot), which forms a fresh water alga that maked all rocks in the stream incredible slimy and slippery. It kept us on our toes, that's for sure.
Easter Mt Owen
I have wanted to explore Mt Owen for years, but I guess since it is a fairly long drive north from Chch, it just hasn't happened until now...
We started the track from the north side in the afternoon of Good Friday. We were amazed how fast we reached Granity Pass hut (2.5 hrs approx). The track took us through beutiful beech forest, passed rocky steep sections and passed areas with sub-alpine vegetation like tree lillies.
Beutiful rock formations
Time to pitch the tent!
We found a sheltered spot at about 1500 m with stunning views and access to water in a neighbouring tarn. The night was calm and a HUGE full moon was shining like a torch. There was no need for us to have any. I thought for a while that I would have problems sleeping since it was so bright, but I crashed pretty quickly.
Heading up Mt Owen the next morning.
Looking back over Kahurangi National Park
The rocks almost looked like mini landscapes.
Looking North from Mt Owen. The weather was packing in and we knew it was time to get a wriggle on.
After a day of chilling out in St Arnaud in Nelson Lakes National Park, we thought it is best to head south. I felt pretty tired from our 1500 m climb on the Friday and the 2000 m altitude drop from Mt Owen, which we tried to run down. I thought we would have a quiet walk in Lewis Pass on the Monday, but no. I forgot who I was with, Charlie, the non-stop running otter!!
We cranked up the hill from Lewis Pass and headed for the Apperentice. For some reason I have assumed Lewis Pass to be very boring although I have almost only done the river walks which all look pretty much the same with beech forest. I was blown away with the views we got after even 1 hr of walking!!
The views towards St James Walkway, which I was yet to tackle. It was on our agenda for the following weekend.
Otter boy at the top
The place is so accessable and I can't wait to go back and explore more of it!
Even up at 1600 m on The Apprentice, it was dead calm and very hot in the sun. What an Easter!
Heading back down the same way as we came up.
St James Ultramarathon
The weekend after Easter, it was time for some severe sufferage! Last year I convinced Charlie to do this 69 km run while I flew up to the north island. Charlie was ill-prepared and suffered badly. This time, he wanted to bury his ghosts and for me with no previous history, it was more a matter of a "fun run".
The start was spread and you could pick your own starting time and I set out 30 min before Charlie. I managed to slip on a tree root after 2 hrs and bash my head against a rock!! I started bleeding from an area beside my eye, but it looked far worse than it was. Everyone who saw me asked very worried if I was OK. -Good as gold! The pain from my head made me almost forget about my stomach pain and for a while I felt very strong.
A 69 km race is pretty painful, especially this one when there weren't that many hills. With a very flat hillcuntry you feel bad for not running. I did OK after all. I didn't womit and I finished. It took a bit longer than I had wished for (10 h 40 min I think)...I don't think I'll do it again. I am not that stupid. Best of all were the hot pools in Maruia Springs after the race.
Charlie, the stupid one (for doing it a second time) completed the race in 8 h 50 min, and I think he managed to bury the ghosts from last year, when his knees gave up and he had more than 9 hrs of self pity.
Last weekend, we competed in an orienteering style race which took place in Mt Somers, about two hours' drive south of Chch by the foothills. With a horribly cold southerly passing through the night before the event, the hills were snow clad and I knew it would be a couple of very cold days ahead of me. The kind of event is not just about being fast, it's also about navigation and picking the best route. Charlie and I "The menal Manokis" as we were called, like to run, but we are pretty shit at navigating. We managed to get pretty lost in very prickly bush in the first 30 min, and ended up at the end of the pack.
It was an interesting race, ALL teams missed the cut off time of 7 hrs to get to the finish line. The first team was ONLY 10 min late. Chris, Emily and Jamie (the organisers) had been a bit too ambitious with spreading out those controls as they thought that most teams would have reached the camp site after 7 hrs. The last team arrived after over 11 hrs. That must have been a pretty cold and horrible last few hours as it gets dark nowadays at about 6.30 pm. It was a tough day since we all had to carry all our camping stuff and food. Some sections towards the end were very painful with lots of matagouri bush scratching my legs. "Harden up Mate" was an phrase I constantly had to tell myself.
The following day we had another course and many teams including us now became ultraconservative and took almost no optional controls to make sure to reach the goal on time. Our planning was pretty poor and in combination with laziness, we finished 2 hrs before the cut off time. The thought of just lying in the sun and taking it easy was far more appealing than being out running up and down hills. I managed to walk straight into a rusty barb wire (taggtrad) and I cut up my hand and got a nice puncture wound in my thigh. Well done Miss Clumpsy! I had to get a tetanus injection when I got back to Chch. All in all, it was a fun and social event. I am hoping to practise some more map reading before next event...and maybe bring some steel trousers against all the prickly bush.
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